Fumble

By Tim Shoemaker Special to The Morning Call -- Freelance | October 19, 2002

Alex Hededus did his part. The Whitehall High School senior defensive back returned an interception 25 yards for a touchdown to give his team a two-point lead over host Easton with 10 minutes left Friday night at Cottingham Stadium. But it almost wasn't enough. Whitehall twice had to turn away the Red Rovers in the final three minutes to hold on for a 15-13 Lehigh Valley Conference upset, which dealt a serious blow to Easton's District 11 Class 4A playoff chances. The Zephyrs (2-6)

Charles Huff has been known to chase running backs across the practice field, wearing spikes, attempting to dislodge footballs from their grasp. It can be unnerving, Penn State's Bill Belton said. But Huff, who coaches Penn State's running backs, is zealous about ball security. Head coach James Franklin called Huff as motivated to prevent fumbles as any coach he has seen. For the Nittany Lions, that's welcome news. The backfield will be among Penn State's most experienced positions, with two seniors and a redshirt sophomore returning to form a sharp three-back rotation.

About the only thing missing at J. Birney Crum Stadium was the brightly colored gift wrap and the bows wrapped around each North Schuylkill touchdown. The Spartans scored all their points off Allen turnovers, including a pair of back-breaking fumble returns in the third quarter that catapulted them to a 34-14 nonleague win. North Schuylkill (4-1) scored after four of Allen's six fumbles and following one of two interceptions. The two fumble returns -- a 21-yarder by Bob Moyer and a 79-yarder by Al Marquart -- capped a 20-point third quarter that gave the Spartans a 34-8 lead.

Seems just about every retailer these days has a customer-loyalty-rewards program. We've all been through the drill. You go to pay for something and the cashier asks if you have a rewards card. If you don't, you know such a card is connected to some kind of discount pricing, so you surrender all of your personal information to save a nickel on a can of cream of mushroom soup. These things used to creep us out. We didn't want anyone scrutinizing our everyday purchases. But we reconciled that with, "what have we got to hide?"

by DENNIS ZEHNER (A free-lance story for The Morning Call) | September 6, 1997

The Notre Dame Crusaders did everything they needed to do in order to beat Colonial League rival Saucon Valley, except hold onto the football. Instead, a fumble through the end zone by tailback Scott Finney proved costly to Notre Dame as it fell to the Panthers 9-6 Friday night. Finney, who finished the night with 161 yards on 19 carries, rolled around the right side of the line on the fourth play from scrimmage and found daylight. However, as he was hit from behind, Finney coughed up the ball, which rolled through the end zone for a touchback.

There is only one Kyle Gallagher on the Southern Lehigh football roster. But Friday night, the Northwestern Tigers must have thought there were at least four or five of them. That's because Gallagher was seemingly everywhere during the Spartans' 24-13 Colonial League win in New Tripoli. There was Gallagher the fullback, who gained 73 yards on 15 carries, including one bruising 9-yard, first-quarter touchdown run in which he broke four tackles. Gallagher later recovered his own team's botched lateral attempt late in the second quarter.

Matt McGloin spoke for every Penn State fan Saturday whose critiques of Big Ten officiating extend beyond human error. "We're not going to get that call here, we're not going to get that call ever, actually, against any team," the Penn State quarterback said. "Doesn't matter who the refs are. We'll never get that call. " A game that twisted through five turnovers, countless chances and some wild plays ultimately will be remembered for an officiating moment that went against Penn State.

Jeremy Savitz, Pen Argyl's small (5-8, 180 pounds) but quick and scrappy nose tackle, jumped offsides on Northern Lehigh's first play from scrimmage Saturday at Alumni Stadium. It was the last thing he did wrong all afternoon, even though he spent so much time wreaking havoc in the Bulldogs' backfield they probably thought he was offsides for every snap. The unbeaten two-time Colonial League champion Green Knights (11-0) got plenty of offensive fireworks, in particular from quarterback Anthony Graziani and wideout Tyler Germano, in this Class 2A District 11 semifinal clash.

PHILADELPHIA — The obvious reason why the Eagles lost to San Francisco Sunday afternoon is that rookie kicker Alex Henery missed two mid-range field goals in the fourth quarter. As we heard somewhere before in a similar situation, "Do the math. " But it's not just those missing six points that doomed the Eagles to their stunning 24-23 setback, one that already puts those Super Bowl dreams everyone had just a month ago on life support. The Eagles have one of the NFL's most dynamic offenses, something Michael Vick and Co. showed Sunday when they rolled up 513 yards against a defense that ranked third in the NFC after the first three games.

A Bucks County man charged with homicide by auto for hitting and killing an 85-year-old woman in May as she was crossing Kings Highway in Upper Milford Township told police the crash occurred when he took his eyes off the road to retrieve a fumbled cellphone. Lehigh County prosecutors say the driver, Christopher J. Murphy, 33, of Warrington Township, was headed south on Kings Highway and hit Helen Kemmerer despite having a clear line of sight that should have allowed him to see her and stop in time.

PHILADELPHIA - Deandre Scott positioned himself in the middle of the field waiting for the final defensive call from the Imhotep Charter sideline. It never came, so he drifted back in coverage as Catasauqua's third-down play started. The senior defensive back bound for Arizona State surveyed the field once, twice, then peeked in at Catasauqua quarterback Zack Bradley as he released the ball. Scott broke on it and snared the ball just below knee level. He had just one thought after getting his second interception of the game, fifth of the season: Take it to the house.

When his running back fumbled for the third time in three games, Bill O'Brien doubled over as though he were gut-punched. And, in some ways, he had been. The Penn State coach can juggle lineups and rotations and practice schedules to accommodate the complex needs of his depleted roster, but he can't hold the football for his players. And so, O'Brien paces (as he did two weeks ago when his quarterback fumbled inside the 2-yard line) or he hunches over and stifles a roar. "The reason I get frustrated on the sideline when we fumble the ball is because I have high expectations for the players on this team," O'Brien said.

Colgate had a miserable time in the nonconference portion of its season, but the Red Raiders are 1-0 in the Patriot League thanks in part to big plays by Kris Kent (Nazareth) and Daniel Cason (East Stroudsburg South). Kent had eight tackles and forced a key fumble at the Red Raider 1-yard line, and Cason had seven catches for 123 yards, including three big receptions on touchdown drives, to help Colgate (2-5) rally to a 28-24 win at Holy Cross on Saturday. Kent's hit forced the Crusaders' Elad Covelio to cough up the ball, which was recovered by teammate Mike Armieto, who later added an interception in the end zone.

Frank Dangello found himself in an unfamiliar position on the football field Friday night. The outside linebacker on defense - Dangello is Northwestern's starting quarterback - was moved to cornerback because of numerous in-game injuries. His pass deflection in the end zone with 30 seconds remaining saved the Tigers in their thrilling 33-27 win over Notre Dame in a Colonial League clash on the campus of Notre Dame High School of Green Pond. Northwestern improved to 3-2 overall and in the league.

Over the first three weeks of the season, no one played more exciting games than Emmaus — all white-knucklers that went to the wire before being decided. But on Friday night, the excitement came in a different package for the Green Hornets. Rather than have its game against visiting Freedom decided in the final seconds, Emmaus created the excitement with big plays. The Green Hornets had a fumble recovery, an interception and a kickoff all returned for touchdowns and a fourth score was set up by another long kickoff return.

OFFENSE: C. Two turnovers prior to the disputed fumble were just as costly. Zach Zwinak's career-high 141 yards and TD mitigated by a fumble. DEFENSE: B. Great in red zone early, but fatigue set in against the tosses and third-quarter dives. Second half another killer. SPECIAL TEAMS: B+. Mike Hull can change games in coverage, this time recovering a fumbled punt. Sam Ficken (3-for-3) handled wind well. COACHING: C. Halftime leads are trouble for Penn State, which has let them slip away three times.

Former Lafayette linebacker Blake Costanzo signed a free-agent contract with the San Francisco 49ers on Wednesday. There he will be reunited with special teams coach Brad Seely, who was his coach last year in Cleveland. Costanzo, 27, signed a one-year deal as an unrestricted free agent. In San Francisco, Costanzo hopes to regain the special-teams form he showed in Cleveland before being placed on injured reserve last November. Costanzo had seven special-teams tackles and a fumble recovery in his second year with the Browns.

When Republicans invite a Democrat to testify at a congressional hearing and Democrats invite a Republican, we should pay attention. Such cross-partisan connections aren't common and typically indicate that congressional leaders are trying to answer difficult questions. That was certainly the case recently, when the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on how to end "too big to fail. " Specifically, the topic of the June 26 session was "Examining How the Dodd-Frank Act Could Result in More Taxpayer-Funded Bailouts" — whether the procedures put in place since 2010 to handle the failure of very large financial institutions would work, and whether we should expect the extraordinary official support provided to those institutions to fade away.

PHILADELPHIA - You know it's a lost season when you blow a two-goal lead against your longtime patsies, as the Flyers did on Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center. The New York Islanders rallied past the Flyers in a shootout, 4-3, extending the home team's losing streak to four games. Josh Bailey won it in the shootout. Colin McDonald's second goal of the third period, a drive that appeared to deflect off defenseman Bruno Gervais, snapped a 2-2 tie with 4 minutes, 23 seconds left.